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Tour de France champion Geraint Thomas (centre).

Thomas should be fit to defend Tour de France after avoiding serious injury

A crash at the Tour de Suisse does not appear set to rule Geraint Thomas out of the Tour de France following scans on Tuesday.

GERAINT THOMAS IS set to be fit to defend his Tour de France title next month after avoiding serious injury in a crash on Tuesday.

Team INEOS star Thomas went down in stage four of the Tour de Suisse after colliding with a rival rider, landing on his shoulder and taking a blow to his head.

The knock ruled Thomas out of the remainder of the race, yet his scans came back clear later in the day.

The 33-year-old merely suffered shoulder abrasions and a cut above his right eye, meaning the setback should not keep him out of action for an extended period.

โ€œClearly, itโ€™s frustrating and a small setback for my Tour de France preparations, but thereโ€™s still plenty of time before we start in Brussels in a few weeksโ€™ time,โ€ Thomas told the INEOS website.

โ€œWe will recalibrate and Iโ€™m sure my coach Tim [Kerrison] will have a plan in place to ensure Iโ€™m ready for July 6.โ€

Team doctor Derick Macleod added: โ€œ[Thomas] has been given the all clear, which is great, but we will continue to monitor him over the next few days.

โ€œKnowing Geraint, it wonโ€™t take him long to get back on his bike, but weโ€™ll need to ensure heโ€™s symptom free in the next few days before he does so.

โ€œWeโ€™re optimistic heโ€™ll make a full recovery over the coming days, though, and all being well, heโ€™ll be back on his bike very soon.โ€

The news comes as a boost to INEOS, who will be without four-time champion Chris Froome in France after fractures to his right femur, elbow and ribs.

The pair sat out the Giro dโ€™Italia earlier this year, where team-mate Egan Bernal was also absent through injury.

- Omni

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    Mute Brendan Heery
    Favourite Brendan Heery
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    Jun 18th 2019, 11:29 PM

    Glad itโ€™s not serious but definitely not going to be good for his preparation though.

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    Mute Andrew Tuite
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    Jun 19th 2019, 8:59 AM

    @Brendan Heery: it means he needs to backload the km and the height metres in the interim also. That said Iโ€™d say heโ€™ll be ok.

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    Mute Christy Dolan
    Favourite Christy Dolan
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    Jun 24th 2019, 1:13 PM

    Chances of the Colombian with an Irish sounding name to be their man ?

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